The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-01-30
MUSCLE READING.

billsa Has il made superstition and belief in
the spiritualistic and miraculous stronger or has
it been the means of revealing and illustrating
to the public the phenomena of the involuntary
life which all possess ard which but few under
stand2
In the first place, the term "mind-reading" Is
false and misleading. AS long ago as 1874 DR..
George Beard, of New York coined the term
"musce-reading" to express Browns power and
defined 1t as the power of detecting through
physical contact very slight and delicate mus
cular tensions and relaxatons which result from
the unconscious action Of mind or body. Brown,
like Mesmer, century before him, found he could
do marvellous things which he could not explain
Both were at the first sincere non-experts; each
created Juror in his day. and The lives of
both, adulterated with greed and charlatanism
though they were, have been of Unreasonable
service to both physiology and psychology.
Mesmer and his supporters attributed the now
well-known phenomena of artificial trance to
SO called animal magnetism" which does not
exist. Brown aud his supporters attributed to
mind reading" which does not exist. phenom-
ena belonging to musclereadng. power that
every sound man possesses to a greater or lesser
extent but which is extremely developed in such
persons as Brown and Bishop. But between
meSmerlSt0
ference: mesmerism Is and has been for over
half a century the amusement of the masses, but
the mind reading has been, since 1874, the delu-
sion of the people Scholars professors and our
leading colleges and universities listened to the
doctrine and gave it credence, as thousands
of intelligent people do to-day.
Mesmerism and hypnotism-artiicia;t trance the
latter Is called-are brought about in half a
dozen different ways as by those of Braid and
Mesmer. Ali that is necessary Is to act the
emotion GXnActatlOn. COnc0ntrlt
theory explains all trance and mesmeric states.
Nothing bright or shining. no passes Of the hands
over the brow are necessary to produce frances
there is no need to do anything except to act
upon the emotions of expectation wonder as is
done in the Woodwork meetings. A mesmeristic
show would scarcely draw an audience Of such
intelligent and inquiring people as go to the
muscle reading seances.
Both classes Of phenomena trance and muscle-
| reading, are genuine; no one denies them. The
latter is new to science, ii not to experience
| The explanations OF both Mesmer and Brown
| were erroneous. For months, in 1874, this man
| Brown had the people by the neck, controlled
| the press, held seauces at the great medical and
psychological centers. The faculty of tale Col
| lege, most of the students, and the intellectual
| aristocracy of New Haven. thousand strong,
| assembled to see DIR. Beard investigate Brown.
| He went through ali his tricks-found a penny
| in empty seat. the letter in palladium. Sc
lscted one of sixteen small walls a chair. fixed
| correctly the seat Of imaginary pain, and most
i
| IN physical connection by the hands.
The rapidity and precision of Browns move
| ments astonished Dr. Beard and delighted the
/ audience, and both operator and subjects-some
| Of the best known observation-disclosures partly en-
tranced, for trance and muscle reading take root
| in the same soil. The committee reported tina,
| DR.. Boards theory of unconscious muscular
action on the part Of the subject, which Brown
| felt through his fingers and SO could find To-
| calities, had not been proven by experiment.
that evening and that the claim OF
Brown to be able to read the mind
was, also, not proven. But so confident
| his deduction, that he told the audience to gt
home and experiment., and they would find some
of them could do the same thing, although a.
| that time he did not know there was another
man the planet who could do what Brown wa:
| doing. The result was triumph Of deductive
| reasoning. for in q few weeks there were hun
dreds of ''mind-readers' in the country 1t was
| this fact. more than any reasoning that de
| stroyed Browns claim to be new prophet and
seer before the public. Judge Blydenberg, o.
| New Haven, soon developed an expertress as ar
| operator almost equal to that of Browns
Seven years later the craze broke out in England
in the Royal Society, the royal family, and with
| such scientists as Professors Carpenter. Gallon
Romanes, Robertson and Lancaster. Mr.. Bisho,
was the operator. man who had taken his cue
from Brown IN this country. This learned com
mittee investigated the phenomena scientii
cally and perseverncly, published their repor
in Nature Of June o. 1881, and it agrees essen
tally with the conclusions of Dr. Beard as pub
lished in the July Popular Science Monthly o
1877.
In all these experiments on Brown and Bishop
by Drs. Beard Of New York. and Carpenter. @
England. respectively, nothing was trusted l.
the honor or statements of the operators, as ex
periments with human beings which depend OF
the real or supposed character of the subject |
| experimental Oh do not command the homage o
science. Neither of these men proved trust
worthy, Bishop not even telling of his American
residence and knowledge Of Browns operations
But the scientific researches made through thes
men are quite as curious and valuable as though
made through those known OF believed to be in
telgent and reliable.
All the phenomena of nauscle-reading partak
| of the trarcoidal state or condition. A person
in trance or mesmerzed does things that b
does not know he is doing. He has lost his will
| for the time. and is played upon by every kind @
sensation, both objective and subjective. He
| like ship without rudder. tossed by variou
waves and winds. Dr. Beard says that when hi
finger was hooked on to Judge Blvdenbers's,
was impossible for him, even when keeping hi
arm rigid, to resist his power. provided he KEEP
his mind on the locality the Judge seekn
"a pin of long row stuck in table. Thi
simply means profound attenton-the emotion
of expectation, aud the very essence Of the il
cue ton Of the trancoidal state. When the OF
ject is and thought of by tn
subject, there is unconscious muscular re
lation on the part Of the subject whic
| the supersensitlve operator-Brown, or Bishor
or any other trained and sensitive person de
tects. Localities only are found the nature of tn
object the operator never knows. The marvs
| of these phenomena is only in tho niuutenes
and precision exhibited. Two children. on
blind and one that can see. hand in hand, ar
!, hunting for an apple in the grass; one sees il
! and stops the other consciously. The next Ia
they hunt sn apple, but 1.-THE subiect) de
cides that he will not tell the other 1.-THE operator
when he Gees it; he will get it after for himself
But very sensitive child might SO shudder a
/ the thought OF such unfairness at the instant G
; seeing the apple tina. he would involurtaril
witch and reveal the hidden fruit {
his bliYd comrade. Such gross involuntary mo
tons on the part Of the naughty and selfish, ye
sensitive and remorseful child, ditferen
: from the unconscious muscular tensions and re